Trying on a new professional identity.

As a coach and as a business woman I can see the benefit, or even the need, to try on different professional identities.
What in my late twenties or early thirties had felt like a series of career ‘disasters’, of jobs that did not last, or career pathways that disappointed, have actually been really, really valuable in refining where I do want to work.
I have worked in environments that have made me unwell. Stockroom work, starting at 6am, whilst satisfying on one level, was exhausting for someone who is naturally a night owl and could not get into a habit of going to bed early enough….
I have worked in marketing environments where I did not feel like we behaved well towards our customers. In places where I was frankly bored because the diversity of work did not use all my skills, capabilities & attributes to a wide enough extent.
I have worked in telesales where I did not believe in ‘the product’ and therefore certainly didn’t believe in barging into someone’s day to announce that ‘I had the solution to their problem’. I knew I didn’t and could not work in an organisation where my values and beliefs were compromised in this way.  
I have done jobs where I have been doing what I ‘should’ do and not what I wanted to do. My professional

Identity was constructed of the agenda belonging to all sorts of external forces; parents, school, Society and peers…. It took a few years before I began to claim my own professional journey and risk trying things that I liked as opposed to what others believed I should do….
And finally I have, over and over ignored the core purpose of work for my world. Knowing what purpose work serves in my own world and in the world of those I impact upon, means I can make informed decisions on any role, job, organisation or individual client according to whether it is aligned with my purpose.
The only reason I know all the information above is because I have tried on, and retained or rejected a whole string of professional identities that did or did not fit…. Some jobs were great, some were really uncomfortable because they did not suit me. This has been a refining process, and it continues, as I get closer and closer to a really good fit. All these experiences have informed the place I am now, the place where work is rewarding and joyful. No past experience, however good or indeed dreadful, has been wasted

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